EDMONTON - If the United States follows through with import restrictions on "dirty" crude, Alberta will simply sell its massive oil reserves to other countries, says Premier Ed Stelmach.
"I'm not warning them, I'm just being frank," Stelmach said Thursday. "I'm just saying that we have options and will continue to pursue options."
The U.S. is preparing to invoke legislation to prohibit federal agencies from buying fuels that are produced with higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels, including oilsands crude.
Alberta has been lobbying for oilsands fuels to be exempted from the legislation to ensure that the U.S. military and other federal agencies are not prevented from buying them.
Stelmach says he was very clear when he spoke with U.S. political leaders during a trip to Washington in January that Alberta will no longer allow itself to depend primarily on the American market for exports.
"We will expand our markets," he told reporters Thursday. "If that means building a pipeline to the coast and selling oil to another country, we will."
But Stelmach later clarified that it would be up to the private sector to determine if and when a pipeline was built to the West Coast.
"If there's further resource development and other parts of the world are crying for energy, the companies in the pipeline business I'm sure will determine that and make that decision."
Stelmach made similar comments during the Washington trip when he said it was simply a myth that the oilsands were developed at a huge cost to the environment.
More than two dozen Canadian and U.S. environmental groups were in Washington this week lobbying against any move to exempt Alberta's oilsands from the "dirty" fuels legislation.
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Article online since May 8th 2008, 0:00
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